Offensive vs Defensive calibers

[YogiBear]

In our house, nothing less than 38 caliber.

We also have a 357 and 40SW as "house guns", with lasers

[dr.jayakumar]

for the sake of argument we can discuss a caliber as offensive or defensive.but practically any caliber can be defensive and offensive isn't it?
regards
dr.jk

[captrakshitsharma]

I think The Topic tries to hint at the stopping power of a caliber... A shot from a .25 (considering bad placement can offend someone) and one from a .38spl +p,.357 Mag, .45 can defend your life and drop down an assailant on his tracks.

[TwoRivers]

I think The Topic tries to hint at the stopping power of a caliber... A shot from a .25 (considering bad placement can offend someone) and one from a .38spl +p,.357 Mag, .45 can defend your life and drop down an assailant on his tracks.

Not if it also involves bad placement. A well placed .25 beats poor placement with a .357, and miss with a .45. IMO this whole topic is silly. You could well argue that offensive use gives you the choice of place and time, allowing accurate placement of the shot, a .22 RF would be a good choice, drawing less attention.

A defensive situation, on the other hand, is likely to come as a surprise, allowing little time to aim. Hence the biggest possible caliber.

I'll therefore nominate a long barreled .22 RF as the ideal "offensive" caliber; and the .480 Ruger in a short-barreled Ruger Super Redhawk as the best "defensive" caliber.

A load of #12 shot from a .22 RF in the face may well be the most "offensive" of all.